Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Nokia on Tuesday announced that it had settled its patent fight with Apple, which was about 1 1/2 years old. Nokia first sued Apple in October of 2009.

The settlement includes a one-time lump sum payment from Apple to Nokia, along with future royalties. Deutsche Bank analyst Kai Korschelt said in a research note that Nokia is likely to receive a $608 million payment in Q2. Other estimates, however, go up as high as $900 million.

Whatever the amount, and Nokia isn't talking specifics, it's enough to help the company as it transitions to Microsoft's Windows Phone OS on its smartphones. The company even went so far as to say

"This agreement is expected to have a positive financial impact on Nokia's recently revised outlook for the second quarter 2011 of around break-even non-IFRS operating margin for Devices & Services."

At the same time, now that Apple has rid itself of a lawsuit filed against itself, it can concentrate on legal battles still ongoing between the Cupertino, CA-based company and rivals such as Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

For those companies, the battle mostly lies over Android. Here's what FOSS Patents has to say:

This is also very significant with a view to Android. Given that Android is in many ways a rip-off of Apple's operating software, Android-based devices are highly likely to infringe on largely the same Nokia patents that Apple now felt forced to pay for.

In other words, bad news for Android manufacturers. Not only are the above Android OEMs being sued by Apple, they likely infringe on Nokia's patents as well. And since Apple was willing to settle, that's something that could be very telling in future litigation.